The Strangers
28-03-2008
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), was sent with the message of Islam to a
world full of darkness and corruption. People at that time believed in idols and
were following their desires. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) wanted to bring the people
back to the worship of Allah. Alone, he was like a stranger in a corrupt
society. He believed however that Allah will strengthen him in conveying the
message of Islam to the world. So he worked with his companions to spread Islam.
Although they were at first weak in their own country and strangers among their
own people, the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions strived hard till they
established the first Muslim state in Medinah, and later on included the whole
Arabian peninsula.
Muslims today experience the strangeness of Islam and need to learn from the
life and seerah of the Prophet the means to repell the strangeness of Islam and
to revive strength in the body of the Muslim Ummah.
Abu Huraira narrated that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), said: "Islam initiated
as something strange, and it would revert to its old position of being strange,
so good tidings for the strangers." (Recorded by Muslim, Attirmidthi, Ibn Majah,
and Ahmad) This hadith shows that Islam started weak and strange, then became
strong and will then, at certain times and places, go through a second state of
weakness. Muslims who then stick firmly to their religion will have many
dissenters and only few supporters. The believers at that time become like
strangers or aliens even if they are in their own country. In this series, we
will follow Shaikh Salman al-Awdah's exposition of the types, symptoms and
causes of this strangeness, the qualities of the 'strangers' and their ways of
overcoming the strangeness of Islam.
There are
two types of strangership that Muslims are going through today:
1 - The first is the alienation
of Muslims from the followers of other religions.
Abdullah Bin Massud narrated: "While we were in the company of the Prophet in a
tent, he said: 'Would it please you to be one fourth of the people of paradise?'
We said: 'Yes'. He said: 'Would it please you to be one third of the people of
paradise?' We said: 'Yes'. He said: 'Would it please you to be one half of the
people of paradise?' We said: 'Yes'. Thereupon he said: 'I hope that you will be
one half of the people of paradise, for none will enter paradise but a Muslim
soul, and you people, in comparison to the people who associate others in
worship with Allah, are like a white hair on the skin of a black ox, or a black
hair on the skin of a red ox.' (Related by al-Bukhari)
This hadith shows that the conflict between the Muslims and the disbelievers
never stops and that this conflict did not prevent the Prophet (pbuh) and his
companions from spreading Islam.
2 - Second type of alienation
is the alienation of the followers of the Sunnah from the other sects of
Muslims.
This type is harder than the first. When a Muslim adhers to Sunnah, his
strangeness increases. He gets many opponents and less supporters. He is a
traveler on a long path with few companions. When he reaches a higher stage,
some of his companions withdraw from him until a very limited number of them
remain to continue the journey.
The followers of the Sunnah should spread the right creed, the correct
methodology for the interpretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah; and the right
Islamic manners. They should call non-Muslims to Islam so that they do not fall
prey to the innovations and the prejudices.
The strangeness of Islam might be a strangeness of principles, place or time.
The strangeness of principles means that some principles like Jihad and
enjoining good and forbidding evil become strange. The strangeness of place is
when Islam becomes alienated in one place but strong in another place. The
strangeness of time is when Islam becomes strange everywhere at a certain period
of time. However, there always exists a group of victorious followers of the
Sunnah who are not influenced by those who oppose them.
Submitted by a Mujahid